Any point in appealing?
ON November 20 I parked my vehicle in the Barnstaple Retail Park car park. I returned just within the two-hour period to find I had lost my car keys.
I realised they must have fallen out of my pocket when I had tried on some trousers in Primark. I left a note on my windscreen and struggled back to the top end of town and retrieved my keys. I had to sign for them and subsequently sent Parking Eye a copy of this page with the time of signature marked on it.
Of course as there is no parking attendant in this car park my note was not seen. I subsequently received a fine notice which I disputed. This rumbled on until I had to appeal to appeals@popla.org.uk and I have today (March 1) received notification that my appeal was unsuccessful.
It said: "I am not able to take into account mitigating circumstances. That an appellant feels he or she had good reason for failing to comply with the terms of parking is not a reason for which I can allow an appeal. When parking on private land, a motorist freely enters into an agreement to abide by the conditions of parking in return for permission to park."
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What was the point of appealing if the assessor is not prepared to take account of mitigating circumstances? Surely my reason was valid as I could not physically remove my vehicle in the allotted time?
Has anyone else been victimised in the same way? And does anyone have any suggestions what I can do now? Is this car park ever full?
It is just this very sort of thing that stops people shopping in town.
LOVEDAY MILLER,
South Molton.
2 Comments
by R_Sole87
Thursday, March 14 2013, 12:59PM
“Don't appeal - in fact - DO NOTHING - it is not a "parking ticket". The ONLY people who can give enforceable parking tickets are the council or a police officer. It is a constant frustration that so few people are aware of this con, which is 100% legally unenforceable.
PPCs (private parking companies) use a form contractual law to fine vehicle keepers, which is unlawful and unenforceable. Private companies cannot issue penalties or fines.
They use forms and paperwork designed to imitate official council/local authority/police tickets.
If you're in a PRIVATE car park, these "tickets" are simply an unenforceable piece of paper. Just keep ignoring the letters and after 3 or 4, they will go away. PPCs have been known to send fake solicitors' letters and even fake court seals (which is illegal) to get people to pay up. They just rely on scare-mongering tactics, the threatening language on their letters ensures that 75% of people pay up straightaway, and with the sensible 25%, they don't bother following up because they KNOW that in court they would lose.
No PPC has EVER won in court against someone who refused to pay one of these unenforceable invoices.
Plain English example: someone parks on your private drive at home. Yes it is annoying, you can put up whatever notices you like, but you can't just go and fine them, you're not the police or the council. You are a private individual. This is the same with PPCs.
Furthermore, they can only claim for actual monetary losses. For example, if parking cost £1 per hour, you paid for 1 hours and parked for 2, you would owe them £1. Small rule infractions such as parking over a white line do not result in them losing any money, so they cannot claim hundreds of pounds of compensation for things like this.
To sum up: ALL "tickets" from non-council car parks are UNENFORCEABLE. You should just ignore them all. NEVER appeal. These companies do not have an appeals process. It also identifies who was driving the car, which you have no legal obligation to tell them.
Sorry for the long post but it really is tedious how many people just assume that these tickets are legal and pay up straight away, putting money in the bin.”
by Derbyite
Thursday, March 14 2013, 11:16AM
“I would suggest you visit http://tinyurl.com/lewaow”